Since we've got a break, I figured this would be a good time to take stock with this poll. I arbitrarily (mod power, heh heh heh) restricted the choices to eps I gave an A- or better, which makes...8 out of 12, which is frankly unbelievable. Talk away!

Tough one. I know everybody has the hot panting Hoyay! sweats for Echolls Family Christmas, but I thought the first half hour was a touch slow. I'm tempted to punch the ballot for Silence of the Lamb, mainly due to the riveting Mac sub-plot, the relaxed presence of Leo, and the spectacular ep-long snot-off between Keith ("Hello, Cleveland!") Mars and Deputy Dawg, but in the end, I have to go for the pilot. Brilliant, and the darkest opening hour of any TV series I've seen in a long time. It set the bar impossibly high for the episodes to come; what's amazing is that some of those episodes have actually cleared the bar.

Mmm... I too was torn, but between the pilot, and "Clash of the Tritons", in the end "Clash" probably got me with the stellar one liners, because this was the funniest ep yet, and plenty o'close ups on KB, but also the action sequences. And, despite the cruddy editing, really, a singing KB will get my vote every time.

Wow, this is tough...I loved all the twists in "Meet John Smith," and I loved the poker-goodness of "An Echolls Family Christmas," but I have to go with "Clash of the Tritons." Funny, emotional, and just awesome in every way. You can't beat a line like "Say repressed homosexuality!"

This was so so hard. I almost voted for "Return of the Kane" but decided on the pilot at the last minute. Clash was great as was Christmas.

Can't wait to see the results. Thanks, CB!

Yeah, that's a tough choice right there; I've pretty much loved every episode. But since "Clash of the Tritons" was fresh in my mind, and had such an awesomely awesome pun/in-joke title, I gave it my vote.

I have to give it to the Pilot by a hair, because the Pilot just cemented things so completely. One hour, and you KNOW you as a viewer adore this character. One hour, and you know she's tough, wounded, sarcastic, vulnerable, compassionate, and capable. There's a bit of a disconnect with Keith in that episode (he takes a few weeks to become real as a character), but setting up both the premise and the character of Veronica so completely is a huge accomplishment.

Echolls Family Christmas is so damn good it's hard to discount it though. And Tritons grows on me more everytime I think about it.

Okay, for me it was a tie between "An Echolls Family Christmas" and "Clash of the Tritons," but that's only because I haven't seen the pilot yet. So I went with "Clash," mainly because I felt it had a more compelling plotline - and actually used every single character, while "Christmas" left out Wallace.

alliterator, I know it's impossible to wipe your mind, but when you DO get to watch the Pilot (next Tuesday, right?) try and imagine you know nothing. I know I had a fairly gut level reaction to Veronica, and I think that's true of most folks here. Right about the time she explains how she lost her virginity, your heart kind of breaks.

Word, alliterator.

Haven't seen the pilot yet either (can't wait 'till Tuesday!) so my vote was between "An Echolls Family Christmas" and "Clash of the Tritons", as well. Ultimately "Crash" won out what with the awesome one-liners, push forward on the Lily murder front and the cliffhanger ending.

Love. This. Show.

I had to go with Clash over the Pilot - while the pilot was great, it didn't have KB singing. That was the final straw for me.

Benito, you said everything I should have said about the pilot. It hit me at a gut level, and that's something that hasn't happened since the end of Buffy S2.

I voted for "Family Christmas", although "Tritons" is a close second.

I thought waaaay too much about this one before voting. It came down to "Christmas" and "Clash," with the latter winning despite that assily edited karaoke scene.

It's a toss-up between the Pilot and Clash... But ultimately I chose the pilot, because that's when I knew that this show was really on to something and that this girl was no fucking Chloe Sullivan clone (ugh).

Nearly every single one of these episodes was, IMO, one of the best hours of TV this year. Which is awesome news for the show, but bad news for those of us forced to pick only one episode as a favorite! As with a few of you, my choice came down to 'Christmas' and 'Clash.' Ultimately, I chose Clash for the all-round, jaw-dropping greatness of the writing and acting.

Gah---double post. Sorry!

I'm down with "Clash," if only because, in the space of one hour, we gain more insights and had more questions raised than we had had in several other episiodes put together ... and none of it felt forced or shoe-horned in.

After much deliberation, I decided on "Clash." Of course, the tie for second is the Pilot and "The Echol's Family Christmas."

Clash had terrific acting, and provided many answers and new questions.

But man, with a show this great, it's hard to choose!

I too needed an 'all of the above' button because each ep builds so much on what has gone before. Just terrific television. But since Clash is so far the cherry on top of this big-ass sundae... that gets my vote.

I love them all, even ones not listed. I went for Christmas because I adored it. The Logan/Veronica scene, the reveal scene, the Veronica/Jake scene, the Veronica/Weevil scene, the "I know who did it" scene, the quotes. It was wonderful.

I'm actually quite surprised at how much Clash was loved. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was great, but I dunno. Not THAT great. Just ordinary Veronica Mars great (which of course means way better than everything else). (The Wallace parts were the best part, I thought.) Just my opinion.

I voted for the pilot. It hooked me.

Ditto. It was between 'Clash of the Tritons' and the pilot for me, but the former won out, mostly because it's still fresh in my mind. But the pilot is what hooked me and told me that this was going to be one kick-ass show. However, any single one of those episodes could've been my choice. And rather than catching up on other shows next Tuesday at 9, I plan on rewatching the pilot, because I am obsessed. Say it with me: Ob.Sessed.

Echoing everyone, this was a hard choice to make! Finally went with Christmas, but the pilot was a very close second for the reasons already stated here. I picked Christmas for a number of reasons; everything from the look on Keith's face when he saw V with Jake Kane to "Where's Weevil?" to the poker to the knife....

jb88, I felt the same way. It was between the pilot and Christmas, but I chose Christmas. There should have been an option for more then 1 best episodes....heh.

The pilot is probably the best first episode I have seen from ANY show. Which is pretty impressive.

Edited because I can't type worth a damn!

"Tritons" wins my vote, edging out the pilot. In addition to all the aforementioned awesomeness, the bit where Veronica is examining photos and talking to herself as if she's voiceovering (or is it voicing over?) puts this one over the top. I'm a sucker for little meta moments like that, especially when they don't whack you over the head with them.

If "Like A Virgin" was on the list, I might have voted for it. I have an irrational love for that episode, simply for the line "I believe cartoon birds braided your hair this morning."

Practically an unfair question; a subpar episode of Veronica Mars is an A effort from almost every show out there, even in this competitive TV season. The less good episodes this season still had great moments -- 'No white after labor day!', Veronica feigning being cult-brainwashable through the poetry of teen angst, most of the dialogue that still snap-crackle-pops even when there's nitpicks with the plot itself. Picking from the better efforts? Amazingly hard. Still, I went with Tritons; it and Echolls Family Christmas made a whole lot of people I know that were iffy on the pilot take a second, very serious look at the series.

Too bad The Girl Next Door wasn't listed, what with all the lovely Weevil/Logan hoyay. It's okay though, I still would have voted for Clash. Veronica's singing and Logan's voice cracking sold me. This is also the first time the show fully made use of their ubertalented cast.

I voted for EFC because I thought it was the most consistently strong. Everything about it worked, there wasn't a single lull or wrong note. COTT for me was good but the A story (the Id storyline) wasn't as strong as the guidance counselor stuff.

Went with CotT, too.
I think it has the funniest lines, the best pacing and uses the whole cast (main/recurring) best.

Runners-up are RotK, EFC and the Wrath of Con, which I think is underrated.

"Wrath of Con" would've made my list. Hey, it was KB's favorite and she has good taste! Plus, I liked seeing Ronnie go all Alias-y on us.

This is definitely a tough poll; it seems as every time I watch the new episodes, I get more & more hooked onto them. :P

I'm partial to the pilot cause it got me hooked, gave me a new reason to look foward to Tuesdays and was the first time I got to see my cousin on TV.

Toughest. Poll. Ever. I chose Clash as the best ep so far, but sheesh, people. The episodes I didn't like as much are still better then anything these sad sick eyes deserve.

Though the pilot was fantastic, I had to give the nod to Tritons for the great one-liners and, well, overall kicking our collective ass from here to Neptune. You know you've got a great series on your hands when even the "worst" episodes are better than the high points of most shows.

Having only just watched CotT for the first time about ten minutes ago, I knew that one would be getting an assload of votes.

It almost got mine, but I thought I'd go with 'You Think You Know Somebody', for all its twisty-turny goodness - and being the episode that made me realise how good the entire cast could be (and I love Veronica saying "Dude, where's your car?" I don't know why).

Poor Paris Hilton still doesn't have any votes. Hee.

See, Rob Thomas? That's what you get for skank-casting.

I feel sorry for that episode having no votes. I mean, it's still Veronica Mars! It deserves at least one vote. Though I'm not the one to show that kind of mercy since I've already voted for An Echolls Family Christmas. I really loved Clash of the Tritons, but I thought AEFC was funnier and more entertaining. I also loved the Veronica-Logan scenes in AEFC. I've seen the scene at the pool house about fifteen times or something like that. "Annoy, tiny blonde one. Annoy like the wind!" Aah...

This is my top 3 eps right now:
1. An Echolls Family Christmas
2. Clash of the Tritons
3. Pilot (I wish the pilot had a regular title.)

I expect (and hope) this list to change many times before the season is over. In fact, I hope three eps that haven't been aired yet will make the top 3.

And yet even the most sour of us on Le Hilton have admitted that it wasn't much of a stretch for her to play a rich insensitive bitch, so it didn't detract from the episode at all. The only real issue was her trying to pass for 17 (which is easy for the 24 year old Bell, but not so for the 23 year old Ms. Hilton I think).

Like A Virgin is my favorite, and then The Wrath Of Con, and then Clash Of The Tritons, which is actually in the poll. It's very likely that Virgin is at least partially my favorite because it's the first ep I ever watched. Con has Lilly! aplenty. The reason I don't like Clash as much as others seem to is that there were just some minor flaws it had that bothered me more-than-minorly. It's still an A ep, though. So...in summary, I voted for Tritons. It HAS to win against Family Christmas, which is actually my LEAST favorite ep.

EDIT: Heh, I just read an interview with Kristen Bell, and we have the same top two eps. Guess we both have great taste...or great minds think alike...something along those lines. ;)

Clash was great. I thought Veronica eavesdropping on the counselor's sessions opened up alot for all the characters, even thought I think it's totally wrong of her to do so.

I voted for 'An Echolls Family Christmas' although had 'The Wrath of Con' been an option, I would have voted for it. I loved the Lily flashbacks in that episode, and it's the episode that got me hooked on the show. I thought 'You Think You Know Somebody' was actually one of the worst episodes.

I want to change my vote. Meet John Smith was robbed.

Plus, I know no one's voting for Paris Hilton, but that episode was pretty Weevil-centric, wasn't it? Surely at least one person has enough love for Weevil to overcome the PH-hate.

I didn't vote because I can't decide. Every time I try to pick my favorite episode, I go back and watch another episode, and that becomes my new favorite. This poll needs a 9th option of "I can't decide because all these episodes are so damn, I repeat, damn."

Voted Clash. It was, for me, the episode in which the show finally gelled and became greater than the sum of its parts; when I stopped being faintly aware I was watching a television show. I was wavering on VM for a few episodes there, this one hooked me pretty solidly.

I too voted Clash. For me, I finished that episode, and just sat there in awe. How can a show be so good? If I were to try to get people into this show, I'd first show them this, then go back to the start. That episode is probably one of the best episodes of any show I've ever seen.

I went with the pilot, because it was so good that the minute it was over I set my DVR to record the entire season. A first episode has to be pretty amazing for me to immediately know that I will not want to miss a single episode of the show.

I think the best thing about this poll is how hard it is to choose which episode is really the best--if ever there was a good use of the phrase "an embarrasment of riches" (as our favorite butler's son/shoplifter likes to say), it is when speaking of this show.

Like others have mentioned, I would have voted for "The Wrath of Con" if that were an option. I suggest a do-over for the poll.

No.